Keene State College’s master’s program in Archival Administration received a once-in-a-lifetime lesson over the fall semester.
The master’s students worked with Professor and Head of Special Collections and Archives at KSC Rodney Obien in conjunction with the Historical Society of Cheshire County (HSCC) and local writer and historian Dayton Duncan, who has previously been a writer and producer with Florentine Films of Walpole, New Hampshire.
Over the fall 2024 semester, students such as Gabby Costa and Hunter Sanborn worked with the HSCC and Obien on the documentation of Duncan’s collection. Costa spoke of the process they had gone through, saying, “We were processing his collection that was in the historical society and then we got to meet with him and have an interview with him to get more specifics on the collection and see where we would go with it.”
Obien, who teaches in the Master’s of Arts in History and Archives program, emphasized the uniqueness and rarity of this opportunity.
Obien added, “I went to the [HSCC] and asked Jenna Carroll, the director, about collections that were available for the students and she offered Duncan’s collection.”
The group of students got the “rare opportunity,” according to Obien, to work with a contributor and the real-life archival experience that comes with it.
“This is not something that happens very often,” added Obien.
Obien said this became part of the master’s level course HIST-652: Archival Methods he was teaching this semester, adding, “I reworked the syllabus for this class so students could work with this collection.”
Students said they were excited to work with the collection as well.
Costa added, “It was a very good experience, not only in terms of understanding donor relations as part of the job as an archivist, but [Duncan] was an incredibly patient, very willing participant in the interviews.”
Sanborn said he thought the experience was very rewarding, adding, “It was very interesting because I didn’t know much about [Duncan]. [Obien] was great too, he was very career-oriented with the class.”
Duncan said he was excited to hear about the class taking on his collection as well, saying, “It was fun working with the students and [Obien].”
Duncan spoke to the amount of documents he had collected over his career as a writer and journalist.
He said he started initially as a freelance sports writer before taking a sudden opening at The Keene Sentinel in 1973. Eventually, Duncan worked his way into politics on the state and national level after leaving the Sentinel after roughly five years and working up to assistant news editor.
His first go around with politics was with the Hugh Gallen gubernatorial campaign in 1978, with Gallen defeating incumbent Meldrim Thomson Jr. After the campaign win, Duncan became Gallen’s press secretary and then chief of staff. After working with Gallen, he returned to writing with the Boston Sunday Times before becoming active in national political campaigns.
On the national level, Duncan worked as Walter Mondale’s deputy press secretary for his 1984 presidential campaign and as press secretary for Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential campaign.
“Working for losing campaigns offers you a lot of free time to write,” Duncan said.
Duncan then met Ken Burns in the 1990s and their friendship developed into a working relationship as a member of Florentine Films in Walpole, N.H. Duncan has written 14 books as well as written and produced nine films with companion books; some of the films he produced with Florentine are “Mark Twain,” “The Dust Bowl,” “Benjamin Franklin” and “The American Bison.”
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.
